Tresspassing?

[wischunter08]

Ok so....

I had to work today, so my uncle was sitting in my stand tonight with no weapon, just to see what was coming in.

Now I am hunting some land that is owned by my girlfriends parents.  Well my uncle walks into my stand at about 4 o'clock, and he is the only one around.

He said he sat there till about 7:15, and decided to walk out.  He exited the woods and got to the field that is adjoining it and saw a few deer so he stopped and watched for a couple minutes.

Just as he was about to leave a guy comes walking out of the wood behind him, exactly where he came out.  This guy asks him if he is hunting and my uncle responds "No, but my nephew is."  This other guys goes on to ask where exactly I am hunting (I'm situated on the edge of some thick pine cover that then opens up into some hardwoods.)  Come to find out this guy is pretty much in the same area as me (according to him).  After asking my uncle if I was baiting, and so on, he begins to get pissy and mad.

I have never seen him before.  He claims to have been hunting it for 5 years, but my uncle says he appears to be in  his early 20's.  The guy says he has had permission to hunt from my girlfriends grandfather, and he says HE owns the land, not my girlfriends parents.

So I asked my girlfriend who this guy was and she has no clue.  To her knowledge, no one has ever hunted that land, and this guy claims he has for 5 years.  Now I have a feeling that I will have a run in with him pretty soon.  I dont know what to do? 

I believe in the state of Wisconsin, this is technically tresspassing.  It just kind of erks me.

[finch]

I'd look into getting a flak vest.  call your local CO and give them a heads up,  people who are that territorial and pissy are the ones you need to be careful of.

[deadeye]

First of all find out exactly who owns the land.  Maybe your girl friends parents don't actually own the land.  I seems to me a conversation with her parents and he grandfather are in order prior to any future confrontations.  I know a number of cases where someone gave another permisson to hunt his land and later sold it or passed on or which is possible in this case simply let his kids live there.  This then becomes an issue when a new party (you) is invited to the land.  Get you ducks in line before taking further action.

[Big E]

I agree with Deadeye, Get all your ducks in a row first. Then if he is indeed tresspassing find out what you need to do like in MN you have to have your land posted with signs every so many feet all the way around your land from corner to corner with your name and phone # on it. (Kinda stupid when your neighbors are your cousins) Then I'd find this guy and tell him the sittuation. Stay calm and let him get all worked up. It will only get ugly if you both get worked up. If he doesn't want to leave or keeps hunting call the CO and press charges. He may have gotten permission to hunt the land for one time only and thought he had permission from there on out. We had a guy like that on land we lease. We were polite and stayed calm. He apologized and we never saw him again.

[Mayfly]

I ran into a situation similar to this last year. I lived next to some great land so I went to the county and found out who owned it. I got an address and stopped by the house. Turned out the actual owner of the property was in a nursing home and his daughter and son-in-law were the powers of attorney over the land and everything else he had. They did give me permission and within the first week I bumped into another hunter. Apparently about 10+ years ago the old man gave this guy permission. He took the permission that he got 10+ years ago and used it as his ticket to hunt every year. For all he knew the land had been bought and sold. Needless to say they did not want him hunting back there and that ended. When I saw him walking in one night I told him that I was given exclusive permission and to their knowledge noone else was to be hunting back there. I gave him the phone number and the contact names and said that he had better talk to someone before he decided tohunt back there again and he did call and lost his permission. Some people....

If you are going to hunt someone elses property get all the facts. Find out who OWNS it and make sure they are aware. Find out if there is anyone else hunting to their knowledge and if you have permission to police the land if you are to encounter someone else there. Is some cases it might even be beneficial to get in touch with some of the adjoining landowners. This respect for the permission and the people in the area can go a long way. Know your boundaries as well. Know the neighbors boundaries. Educate yourself as much as possible on the land and its surroundings. Who knows you may end up with more land to hunt. I did this last year and I started with permission on 20 acres and by the end of the year that grew to 80 acres of prime time metro land that I have exclusively locked up.